A geographical and historical DISQVISITION, TOUCHING The ASIA properly so called, The Lydian Asia (which is the Asia so often mentioned in the New Testament) the Proconsular Asia and the Asian, Diocese. BY JAMES USSHER, Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of all IRELAND. ACT. 19.10. All they which dwelled in ASIA, heard the Word of the LORD JESUS, both Jews and greeks. 1 CORINTH. 16.19. The Churches of ASIA salute you. REVEL. 1.4. JOHN to the seven Churches in ASIA. Grace be unto you and peace. OXFORD, Printed by HENRY HALL, 1643. To the READER. FInding much perplexity in the several acceptions of the name of Asia, even taken in the stricter sense, for that which was but a Member of Asia the less: for mine own better satisfaction, in reading as well of the new Testament as of other ecclesiastical and civil Histories; I endeavoured to try whether, by a fit distinction of places and times, some help might be found for the resolving of those difficulties. Where I learned withal, both how wide he should err in matters of this kind, that would trust only to Ptolemy's Tables, without further consulting with the ancienter Historians and Geographers; and what use might be made of the imperial Laws, not only for the furtherance of civil prudence, but also for the bettering of our knowledge in other parts of good learning. Which brief Observations of mine, now the second time revised, enlarged, and much amended (the former Edition being but suddenly thought upon) I here again present to the favourable view, and submit to the riper judgement of the more intelligent Reader. Trist. lib. 1. e. leg. 6. Et veniam pro laude peto: laudatus abundè, Non fastiditus si tibi, Lector, ero. A DISQVISITION, TOUCHING The ASIA properly so called, the Lydian Asia, the Proconsular Asia, and the Asian Diocese. CHAP. I. Of the Asia which by the Romans was first properly so called; and the several members thereof. AS the lesser Asia (now called Anatolia or Anatolia) was a part of the great, and Asia properly so called a part of that lesser; so the Lydian Asia was a parcel of that Asia which was properly so called. For the fuller understanding whereof, we are to call to mind, that the Romans having possessed themselves of the countries which had formerly belonged unto the Pergamen Kings, reduced them into the form of a Province; which they called, a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Strabo, Geograph. lib. 13 pag 624. (edit. Graeco. latin. an 1620) by the name of the great Continent, Asia. This is by Cicero b Namque, ●t opinor, Asia vestra constat ex Phrygiâ, Mysiâ, Ca●iâ, Lydiâ. Cicero, in orat. pro Flacco: ad ipsos Asianos ve●ba facien●. distinguished into four members: Phrygia, Mysia, Caria, and Lydia. The first whereof is by Dionysius Afer, c Strabo, lib. 12 pag. 571. Strabo, d Ptolem, Geograph. lib. 5. cap. 2. Ptolemy and others, divided into the greater and the lesser Phrygia. Within the greater those two Phrygia's were comprehended, which in after ages, were known by the names of Pacatiana and Salutaris: the former of which (mentioned in the subscription, added by the Greek Church unto the former Epistle of S. Paul unto Timothy) being the more Southern part of the greater Phrygia, is thought to have received that appellation from Pacatianus: who in the days of Constantine the great, bore the office of the e Cod. Theod. lib. 10. tit 15. de advocato fisci. l. 2. perfect of the Praetorium of the East, having not long before been at the same time f Ibid. l 3. tit. 5. de sponsal. l. 4. both Consul and perfect of the City of Constantinople; and (as it may seem) diverse years before that, began his preferments here in the West, with the * Vid. Cod Theod. l 11. tit 7 de exact. leg. 2. ad Pacatianum Vicarium Britannia●um. Lieutenantship of our Britain. Of the latter, there is mention made in a certain g L. Cum appellatio. C. de appellationib. Constitution of Constantius the son of Constantine, and in the Subscriptions both of the fourth general council held at Chalcedon, and of the fifth held at Constantinople; in which last h Severus Episcopus Synnadensium, Metropoleos Phrygiae Salutaris. Concil. 5. Collat. 8. Severus subscribeth as Bishop of Synnada, the Metropolis of Phrygia Salutaris, (however i Socrat. Histor. Ecclesiastic. lib. 7. cap. 3. Socrates, by some lapse of memory, and k Nicephor. Callist. histor.. lib. 14. cap. 11. Nicephorus blindly following him, have made this to be a City of Phrygia Pacatiana:) as in that of Chalcedon, l {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. council Chalcedon. Act. 16. Abercius, as Bishop of Hierapolis, a city of the same Phrygia Salutaris. Where it may be noted; first, that besides that more known Hierapolis in Phrygia Pacatiana (of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter) there was another of less note in Phrygia Salutaris: the one whereof in m Plin. Histor. natural. l. 5. c. 29. & 30. Pli●yes days (before this new distinction of the parts of the greater Phrygia was brought in) belonged to the Laodicean, the other to the Pergamen jurisdiction. Secondly, that before this Abercius, who was present at the council of Chalcedon; there were two other Bishops of the same name, who succeeded one another in the same See, about the time of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, whose episcopal seat is by n {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. & post. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Metaphrast. in acts Abercii, Octob. 22. (M●. in Bibl. other. Colleg. Corp. Christi, Oxon.) simeon Metaphrastes placed in that little Phrygia, whereof Synnada was the Metropolis: whereas the other greeks more consonantly to the truth do relate, that o {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Menaun●· Graec. MS. O●tob. 22. Abercius was Bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia Salutaris. For the greater Phrygia (whereof this Salutaris was a part) both by the forenamed Geographers, and by p {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Diodor. Sic lib. 18. Diodorus Siculus and q In Asiâ Phrygiam utramque, alteram ad Hellespontum, majorem alier●m vocant, Liv. lib. 38. Livy, is opposed to that which lay upon the Hellespont: and had in it the Cities of Ilium (called by r Herodot. lib. 7. Herodotus, the Pergamus of Priamus, upon the river Seamander) and of Troas; which is often mentioned in the s Act 16.8, 11. et 20 ●, 6. 2 ●or. 2 12. 2 Tim. 4.12. New Testament, and by others named t T●oi●, Antigonia dicta, nunc Alexand● a Col●nia Rom Pl●n. lib. 5. cap 30 Antigonia, Alexandria, and the u {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Strabo, lib. 13. pag. 581. Ptolem lib. 5. c●p. 2. Galen. de simplic medic●m facul●. lib. 9 Alexandrian Troas: from whence the whole country retained the name of Troas; as well as the other appellations of x Strabo, lib. 2 pag. 129 & lib. 12. pag. 563.571. Epictetus, the Hellespontian and the lesser Phrygia: beginning northward, y Vid. Strabon. li. 13. pag. 582, 583, 586. according to Homer, from the river Aesepus, or z Ibid pag. 583. init: according to Damastes from the city Parium, not far from thence, and, according to both, extending itself from thence, along the water si●e, Southward unto the Promontory Lectum. Betwixt this lesser and the greater Phrygia was Mysia interposed: the borders of each other being so confusedly intermingled together, a Id. lib. 12. p●g. 571, 572. that it was a very difficult matter to distinguish them. And as the lesser Phrygia was called the Hellespontian, and a difference thereby put betwixt it and the greater: so this Mysia likewise, being in the country (although further removed from the Fretum or Strait) of Hellespont, had the like name of the Hellespontian Mysia given unto it; thereby to discriminate it from the ●strian * De qua Macer l C. est capi cudus, in D. de offic. adsessor l. 3. & Ulp●anus in D. de captiv. & postlimin. & redempt. l. 9 Vid. et Strabonem, l. 12 p●g. 57l. ex Arte midoro Mysia or Moesia: the Hellespontian Mysia and Phrygia jointly making up that entire Province, which in the division of the Empire made by Constantine (because it was settled under the government of a b Noritia utriusque Imperii. Consular President) had the name of the c L Offic. H●llesponti. C. de offic. come. sacr. patrimon. vel potiùs 〈◊〉 proconsulis & legati. Consular Hellespont bestowed upon it. Thus Galen, having occasion to prescribe the use of Mysian Wine, declareth that he meant thereby, d {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Galen. de sanitat, tuend. lib. ●. not that which was from the Mysia about the river Ister, but from that which is named the Hellespontian; which (saith he) is about our Asia, and conterminous unto Pergamus. For that the greater Mysia reached Southward unto the Pergamen Territory, and the plain of Caïcus, is by c {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Herodot. lib. 6. §. 28. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Id. lib. 7 §. 42. Herodotus and f {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. S●rabo. lib. 12. pag. 576. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Id ibid. pag. 571. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, &c. Ibid. Et adde ex Pausama in Atticis (pag. 4. et 10.) ips●m u●bem Pergamenam d●ctam fuisse olim Teuthraniam. Strabo in like sort testified: as it reached from thence Northward unto the mountain Olympus; which from the Mysians was called g Mons Olympus, Moesius (al. Mysius) dictus; civitas Oly●pena. Plin lib. 5. cap. 32. Moesius or Mysius, and the h {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Herodot. lib. 7. §. 74. vid. Strabon. lib. 12. pag. 571.574.576 Mysians from it again received the surname of Olympeni. that which i {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} gem. lib 5. cap 2. Ptolemy calleth the lesser Mysia (the chief city whereof was Cyzicus) reaching from that mountain westward unto the river Aesepus, and there joining with the Northern part of Epictetus or the lesser Phrygia. Caria was parted from Lydia by the winding currents Maeander: from the receiving of the river Lycus into it, unto the emptying of itself into the Myrtoan sea. For howsoever Ptolemy taketh all that lieth betwixt this and the river Cayster from Lydia, and addeth it unto Caria: yet k {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Strab. lib. 12▪ pag. 517. Strabo maketh Maeander to be the limit betwixt those Provinces; and as well by Scylax Caryandensis in his Periplus, as by l Lydia perfusa flexu● si amnti Maeandr● recursibus, super joniam proced●r.. Plin l. 5. cap. 29▪ Pliny, m {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Maxim. Tyr. disse●t. 38. Maximus Tyrius, and n {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Stephan. de Vrbib. Stephanus Byzantinus, it is reckoned among the rivers of Lydia. Lydia contained, beside the inland region, commonly known by that name, the adjoining countries also, as well of Jonia, lying on the Sea side betwixt the mouths of the river Hermus and Maeander, as of Aeolis, reaching up from Hermus, either unto the River Caicus as Ptolemy, or, as Strabo would have it, unto the very Promontory of Lectum, the ancient bound betwixt Troas and the Sea-coast of the greater Mysia. For that Mysia reached unto the mouth of Caïeus, is acknowledged not only by o Ptolem· lib. 5. cap. 2. cujus Graecus tamen textus in mari●ima hujus orae descriptione manifesto librarii errore, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} nomen habe●, pro {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Ptolemy, but also by p Strabo. lib. 12. pag. 571. Strabo himself: and yet, because that in his time it was possessed by the Aeolians, he declareth withal, that q {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Id. lib. 13. pag. 586. Aeolis, then properly so called, did extend from Hermus unto Lectum, and that r {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Id. i●id. pag. 605. when one turneth about from Lectum, the renowned Cities of the Aeolians, and the Adramyttian bay, do receive him. So doth Pliny likewise affirm, that s Promontariam Lecton disterminan● Ae●lida & Troada. Plin. lib. 5: ●ap. 30. the promontory Lectum did disterminate Aeolis and Troas: although elsewhere, following other Authors, he placeth Assos (the first City that occurreth after the doubling of the Cape of Lectum, and whereof there is mention made Acts 20.13, 14.) in t Id. lib. 2. cap. 96. & lib. 36. cap. 17. Troas, as Ptolemy doth. But u {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Strab. lib. 15 pag. 7●5. Strabo, and x {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Id. lib. 13. pag. 610. Hellanicus before him, maketh it a city of Aeolis: as Stephanus Byzantinus after them, where he saith, it y {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Stephan. in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. is a City of Aeolis about the Hellespont: from which the authority of Alexander Cornelius (Subjoined hereunto by him) saying that Assos in Mysia was a Colony of the Mitylenaeans (in the Island of Lesbus, which lay next opposite unto this Mysia) swerveth little or nothing at all: Mysia, after it came unto the possession of the Aeolians, having gotten the name of Aeolis; as by z Ex quo ab Aeolus incoli coepit, Aeolis facta. Pompon. M●la. ●ib. 1. cap. 18. Mela and a Aeolis proxima est, quondam Mysia appellata. Plin. lib. 5 cap. 30. Pliny is fully testified. The not observing whereof caused Stephanus to make the Assos of Aeolis a different city from the Assos of Mysia near unto Antandrus: for so do I read the place in him; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. and not, as the vulgar books have it; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. The principal sea-towns of this part of Mysia or Aeolis b {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Strabo, lib. 13. p●g. 581. from Lectum to Caïcus, over against Lesbus, are by Strabo reckoned in this order: Assos, Adramyttium, Atarnus and Pitane. That Adramyttium (mentioned in Act. 27.2) was c {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Stephan. a city of that Mysia which is by Caïcus, and d {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Id. Atarna a city betwixt Mysia and Lydia, near unto Lesbus; and e {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Id. Pitane a city of Aeolis, is affirmed by Stephanus. So as, reckoning Atarna itself (as f {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. He●odot. lib. 1. Herodotus doth) among the cities of Mysia, the rest of Aeolis downward will fall within the limits of Lydia. wherein we find, that as well g {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Id. ibid. Phocaea (which is within Aeolis) as Ephesus, Colophon, Lebedus, Teos and Clazomenae, the most known cities of Jonia, are expressly placed by Herodotus. Neither is there any reason to be given, why Cicero in his enumeration of the countries of Asia, should wholly praetermit the mention of Aeolis and Jonia; but that he comprehended them under the names of Mysia and Lydia: in which we see Adramyttium, and all the other cities downward unto Ephesus, to be placed by Scylax in his Periplus. CHAP. II. Of the Lydian Asia, and the seven metropolitical Cities thereof. THat heretofore Lydia was called Meonia, and the Lydians termed Meonians: we read in a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Herodot. lib 7.§ 74. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Id. lib. 1. §. 7. Herodotus, b {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Diodor. l●b. 4. Diodorus Siculus, c {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Dionys. in Pe●●egesi. Dionysius Afer, d {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Strabo. lib. 13 pag. 586. Strabo, e Lydia, Mae●nia antè app●llata. Plin. lib. 5. ca●. 29. Pliny, f {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Stephan. & vice vertâ, in G●aecolati●o Cyrilli Glossario. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Maeonia. Stephanus Byzantinus, and others. And that g {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. S●r●bo, lib 13. pag 6●7. Meonia was in the days of Homer named Asia, and the inhabitants thereof by Callinus (another Poet, h Id lib. 14. ●ag. 648. elder than Archilochus) in the Ionian dialect termed for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or Asians; we find to have been the opinion of Demetrius Scepsius, i Id. lib. 13. pag. 609. who was equal in time unto Crates and Aristarchus the Grammarian. Whereunto we may also add that of Euripides, in his Bacchaes; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. together with that which is related by k {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Ste●h●n. de V●b●b. in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Stephanus Byzantinus, l {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. S●d in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, & Etymologic. in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Suidas, and the great Etymologist; that upon this Tmolus there was a city of Lydia seated, which had the name of Asia: and by Strabo m {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} (leg. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. S●●abo, lib. 13. pag. 629. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Id. lib. 14. pag. 650. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Ver. Scholiast. Aristophanis, in Ach●rnen. , that betwixt the two Lydian mountains of Tmolus and Messogis lay the great Caystrian plain, which Homer calleth the Asian field, in that verse of the second of the Iliads; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. to which Virgil also hath relation in that of the first of his georgics; — & quae Asia circum Dulcibus in stagnis rimantur prata Caystri: and in the seventh of the Aeneids; — sonat amnis, & Asia longè Pulsa palus. Whereunto the testimony of Eunapius may be referred likewise, who speaking of that admirably learned Gentlewoman Sosipatra, saith that n {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Eunap. Sardian. in vitâ Aed●sii, she was of that Asia which is about Ephesus, where the river Cayster running through the country, giveth his name to the plain by which it passeth. It is further also reported by Strabo, that o {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Strabo, lib. 14. pag. 650. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. E●●●ath. in Iliad. ● pag. 254. edit. Roman. in this plain near unto the banks of the river Cayster, the inhabitants used to show the chapels dedicated to the honour of Caystrius, and of one Asia's; whom the Etymologist p {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Etymologic▪ magr. in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. noteth to have been sometime King of Lydia; and to have given the name unto this Asian field. ●r, as q {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Herodot. lib. 4. §. 45. the Lydians themselves would have it, to the whole land of Asia: alleging further, that from this Asias, the son of Cotys, the son of Maneus, they had a tribe in their head-city Sardis, which they called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as is recorded by Herodotus. Whether r {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Steph●n. de Urbib. in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. from this Asias the continent of Asia did take his denomination, or from the forementioned city of Lydia, or from Asia the wife of Prometheus, or from some other original; Stephanus Byzantinus leaveth us to inquire. But beside that the first vowel in Homer's Asia is long, and in the greater Asia (which s {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Id. ibid. Stephanus acknowledgeth him to have been ignorant of) is of a * Yet it is long in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: whereof Stephanus, in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. for so the place is to be restored out of Dionysius: whose verse this is, in his Periegesis. as those others also of the river Tanais. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. So Ovid likewise lib. 5. Metamorphos. Iam super Europen sublimis & Asida terram. a●d lib. 9 of Miletus— et in Asideterrâ Moenta constituis. short quantity: no man can doubt, but the derivation of the name of Asia from a Lydian city, or from a Lydian King and Heros, is far more properly appliable to Lydia itself, then to the whole continent either of the greater or the lesser Asia. For that Lydia was t {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. scholiast.. Apollon. Argonaut. lib. 2. formerly called Asia, is directly affirmed by the ancient Scholiast of Apollonius Rhodius: and that the Asia mentioned in the New Testament was comprehended within the bounds of Lydia (containing in it, according to the above confirmed description, Aeolis and Jonia) will quickly appear to those that carefully compare the Acts of the Apostles and the book of the Revelation together. In the 16. chapter of the Acts, the journey of S. Paul and his company is by S. Luke thus described. When they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the holy Ghost to preach the word in ASIA; after they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bythinia: but the Spirit suffered them not. And they passing by Mysia, came down to Troas. Where it may be observed, that the greater Phrygia, (through which they passed into Galatia) and Mysia Olympena (which was next adjoining unto Bythinia) and Hellespont wherein Troas was situated, being all of them parcels of the Asia by the Romans properly so called; are yet expressly distinguished from Asia, in this more strict sense so denominated as Caria likewise, wherein Miletus stood, appeareth to be by what we read in Acts 20.16, 17. And as these are thus exempted by S. Luke; so the rest that remain of the proper Asia, together with the seven Churches of Asia mentioned in the Revelation of S. John, a●e all of them comprehended within the limits of that Lydian Asia, whereof we have spoken. For, that Pergamus was a city of Lydia, is plainly affirmed by u {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Xenoph. de exped. Cyri. lib. 7. Xenophon: to whom Aristotle also may be added, in his book {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, where he speaketh of a war sometime raised {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. That Smyrna at first was poss●ssed by x {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Aristot. lib. 3. de Poëtica: apud Pluta●ch. in lib. de vitâ & poësi Homeri. the Lydians, is testified also by Aristotle, treating of the birth and education of Homer: who seemeth to have had the surname of Maeonius, either from Maeon the king, or Maeonia the country itself of Lydia; among the cities whereof, Smyrna (the most likely place of that famous poet's nativity) is by Scylax Caryandensis reckoned. as Ephesus likewise is, both by him and y Herodot. histor.. lib. 1. Herodotus; Sardis, Philadelphia and Thyatyra by Ptolemy: and z {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. St●phan. de Vrbib. in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Laodicea by Stephanus Byzantinus. Yet is Laodicea by Ptolemy referred unto Caria, and by others unto Phrygia. The reason of which difference we may lea●ne from Strabo, a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Strabo, lib. 13. pag. 628. who showeth that the confines of Phrygia, Lydia and Caria were so coincident, that they were hardly to be discern●d the one from the other. which is the cause, that though b Id. lib▪ 12. pag▪ 576. & lib. 14. pag. 663. he doth reckon Laodicea among the cities of Phrygia; yet Hierapolis, which was c {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. I●. lib. 13. pag. ●29. opposite to it (toward the East) is by Stephanus d {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Steph●n. de Vrbib. said to be seated betwixt Phrygia and Lydia: it by that means being placed in, and Laodicea without the borders of Phrygia. This also doth Strabo assign for another reason, e {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Strab. lib. 13. pag. 629. why the bounds of the Provinces hereabout were confounded: because that the Romans did not divide these places by the nations; but ordered them after another manner, according to the circuits wherein they kept their Courts, and exercised judicature. Five of these tribunals were seated in the cities of f Plin. lib. 5. cap 29. & 30. Laodicea, Sardis, Smyrna, Ephesus, and Pergamus: Philadelphia was within the Sardian, and Thyatira within the Pergamen circuit- although that g {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Ptolem. l. 5. c. 2 Thyatira was a Metropolis also of itself, as Ptolemy declareth in his Geography; and in all likelihood Philadelphia also, the only city remaining of those seven famous ones singled out, as the seats of the most eminent Churches of all Asia, in the book of the Revelation. For that Philadelphia was herein no whit inferior unto Thyatira; may easily be gathered by the respect which it still retained, after that Lydia (as we shall hear) was separated from the Proconsular Asia, and each Province ordinarily permitted to have but one Metropolis. For Sardis being then the prime city of Lydia, the next in account after it was Philadelphia, another also being placed betwixt it and Thyatira: as appeareth by the order of them constantly observed as well in the h Hieroclis. Notit. Orientalis Imperii; in Appendice Geographiae sacrae Caroli à Sancto Paulo ed●t. Paris. an. 1641. pag. 29. civil as in the i Ordo M●tropolitar. ibid. pag. 13, & 45. & in to●o 1. Juri● Graeco· Roman●. pag. 90. ecclesiastical Catalogues of the cities belonging to that Province. Whereupon in the Acts of the Constantinopolitan council held under Mena●, we see that Eustathius subscribeth himself, in express terms, k {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Concil. Constantinop. sub Menâ, Act. 5. Bishop of the METROPOLIS of the Philadelphians, of the Province of the Lydians. CHAP, III. Of the Proconsular Asia, and the several alterations of the limits thereof. I Come now from the Lydian Asia, and the seven metropolitical cities thereof, unto the Proconsular: which, according to the condition of a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Strabo, lib. 17· pag. 840. other Provinces, had in several times its several alterations. For in the distribution of the Empire made by Augustus Caesar, it appeareth to have been the same with that former Asia of the Romans, which we described in the beginning out of Cicero; but in that which was afterwards brought in by Constantine, to have been confined within the bounds of the Lydian Asia. the greatness of the one above the other being sufficiently intimated in those verses of Statius, touching the year of the Proconsulship of Vectius Bolanus; who, before that, had been Proconsul here in Britain: b Stat. lib. 5. Sylvar. in Pro●reptico ad Crispin. — quantusque potentes Mille urbes Asia sortito rexerit anno; Imperium mulcente Togâ. That same year, c Dio, lib. 53. wherein Caesar obtained first the surname of Augustus, himself being then the seventh, and Marcus Agrippa (who married his sister's daughter) the third time Consul; was this political division of the Provinces ordered by him: far diffe●ing from that geographical partition of countries delivered by his nephew Agrippa. whom d Solin. Polyhist. cap. ●3. Solinus following in his Geography, beginneth Asia from Telmessus of Lycia and the Carpathian bay: and boundeth it on the East with Lycia (or Lycaonia, as e Plin. lib. 5. cap. 27. Pliny hath it) and Phrygia; on the West with the Aegean, on the South with the Egyptian sea, and on the North with Paphlagonia. which being made the limit of Agrippa's Asia on that side (and not Pontus or Propontis) doth necessarily show that Pontus and Bit●ynia we●e included therein. whereas it plainly appeareth by Strabo and Dio, that in Augustus his platform these were a province by themselves. f Strabo, lib. 17. pag. 8●0. they being made by him a Praetorian province, and Asia a Consular; containing in it (as Strabo witnesseth) all that Asia which was on this side the river Halys and the mountain Taurus, excepting Galatia, the countries that had been lately under the government of King Amyntas, together with the province of Bythinia and that of Pontus and Propontis adjoined thereunto. All which being deducted; those countries will remain, which by g Onuphr. Panum. Commentar. Reipubls. Roman. lib. 3. pag. 378. (edit. Francof●rt. an. 1597.) Onuphrius are assigned unto Augustus his Proconsular Asia: to wit, Lydia, Jonia, Caria, Mysia, Phrygia, and the Proconsular Hellespont. h In provincià Asià duae sunt juris I●alic●, Tria● & Parium. l. In L●si ●an. D. de Censib. the two Roman colonies whereof, Troas and Parium, are by Paulus the Lawyer particularly noted to have been seated in the province Asia. And this is it indeed, which Ptolemy proposeth unto us, as that which was accounted i {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Ptolem. lib. 5. cap. 2. the Asia properly so called in the days of Antoninus Pius; who himself, as k Jul. Capitolin. in Antonino Pio. Proconsul, had sometime l Provinciae Asia praerat. Marcianus ● C. in L, D● vus Hadrian. D. de custod. & exhibit, reor. governed this province. Where, in the Breviat of the first Table of Asia, it is not to be passed by, that mention is made of m {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. ad sin. libri 8. Geograph Ptolem. Asia properly so called, wherein was Phrygia. For howsoever that were no part, either of Agrippa's Asia (from whence by n Asiam excipit Ph●ygia. Solin▪ Polyhist. cap. 43. Solinus it is excluded) or yet of the Lydian Asia (from which in o Act. 2.9, 10. & 16.6. the Acts of the Apostles, as also in p {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. E●seb. lib. 5. hist. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. the Letters of the Church of Vienna and Lions, and q Pacem Ecclesi●● Asiae & Phrygiae inferentem. Tertullian. Tertullian's book against Praxeas, it is clearly distinguished:) yet Hierapolis, the chief city thereof, by r Polycrat. in epistolià Synodicâ, apud Euseb: l●b. 5. hist. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Polycrates, and s Ulpian. in D. de Aquâ quotidian. & aest●v. l. 1. §. 13. Ulpian, and Julius Africanus (as far as we have him in t {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Euseb. Chron ad an. 10. Neronis. Eusebius his Chronicle) is placed in Asia; as being contained within the limits assigned by Strabo to the Proconsular Asia, as it stood in the time of Augustus and the heathen Emperors after him. But in the days of Constantine, and the Christian Emperors that succeeded him, the circuit thereof was much abbridged, and a distinction brought in betwixt the Proconsular Asia and the Asian Diocese; the one being put under the command of the Proconsul of Asia, the other under the government of the Vicarius of Asia or the Asian Diocese: for so in the imperial Constitutions is he indifferently nominated. Thus in the CCCLXV. year of our Lord, two Rescripts were given out by the Emperor Valens: the one u Cod. Theodos. lib. 5 tit. 11. Ne c●lon. insciodom. dated the 27th. of January (in the latter end of the first year of his reign) to Clearchus the Vicarius Asiae; the other, x Ibid. lib. 12. tit. 1. de Decu●ionib. leg. 69. the 6th of October following, unto his successor Auxonius, under the style of Vicarius dioeceseos Asianae. This Auxonius y G●id. Pancirol. Commentar. in Notit. Orient. I● per. cap. 122. Vid. & Jo●. Scaliger. Ausonian. lection. lib. 2, cap. 17. some do imagine to be the same with Ausonius the poet: without all ground of authority or reason, removing him out of the Western into the Eastern empire. But of his predecessor we are sure, that he is the same Clearchus, whom Eunapius mentioneth to have been in his time preferred unto this government; before he was by Valens promoted afterwards unto the Proconsulship of the other Asia. Concerning this first preferment of his he declareth, that he was made z {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Eunap. in vitâ Maxim●. governor of all that Asia, the jurisdiction whereof did extend from Hellespont, through Lydia and Pisidia, unto Pamphylia. which is as much to say (if my second thoughts do not here deceive me) as that it contained in it the Consular Hellespont and Phrygia Salutaris adjoining thereunto; together with Phrygia Pacatiana, descending from thence downward, by Lydia on the westside and Pisidia on the east, unto Pamphylia. For howsoever in the alterations that followed this (as we shall hear anon) the greater part of the inland Lydia was brought under this Vicarian regiment (as, not Pisidia and Pamphylia only, but Lycaonia, Lycia and Caria also were:) yet that in Clearchus his time this part of Lydia was parcel of the Proconsular Asia, is sufficiently intimated by Eunapius, extending it unto Tmolus a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Strabo. lib. 13 pag. 629 a mountain placed in the Eastern border of Lydia. For touching the advancement of Clearchus unto the Proconsular government he writeth thus. b {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Eunap. in vitá Maxim. Things prosperously succeeding, Valens was wonderfully well pleased with Clearchus, and was so far from depriving him of his former charge, that he advanced him unto a greater government; appointing him to be Proconsul of Asia now properly so called. This from Pergamus downwards taking the sea-coast into it, toward the adjacent continent reacheth unto Caria; the mountain Tmolus circumscribing that of it which belongeth unto Lydia. Of the governments it is the most honourable; and is not subject to the Praefectus Praetorio. saving that now, by reason of these late commotions, c {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Euripid. in Bacchis. all things are again confounded and disturbed. Where touching the limits of this Asia NOW properly so called, it may be noted; that as Galen (in the place before alleged) maketh the Hellespontian Mysia (which in the old dist●ibution of the Empire was within the precinct of the jurisdiction of the then Proconsular Asia) to be conterminous unto Pergamus, where he himself was borne: so Eunapius from the same Pergamus beginneth the bounds of the now Proconsular Asia; extending the length thereof from thence downward unto Caria, and the breadth from the Sea unto the mountain Tmolus, which is by Euripides, in his Bacchaes, called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the fortress of Lydia; and on the side whereof Sardis (a chief city of that province, and Eunapius his own country) is not only by him, but also by d Herodot. lib. 1. §. 84. & lib. 5. §. 101. Herodotus, e {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Strabo. l. 13. pag. 625. Strabo, and f Lydia celebratur maximè Sardibus, in latere Tmol● montis, qui antè Timolus appellabatur. Plin, lib. 5. c. 29. Pliny (how soever Ptolemy's Tables do misplace it) sufficiently proved to have been situated. that ridge of the mountain, on which Sardis was seated, bounding that part of Lydia toward the East (as we have said) and the other tract thereof reaching from thence unto Hypaepa, a city of less name within the same country: as Ovid declareth in those verses; g Ovid. Metamorph lib 9●. Nam freta prospiciens latè riget arduus alto Tmolus in ascensu, clivoque extensus utroque, Sardibus hinc, illinc parvis finitur Hypaepis. By which description it appeareth, that this Proconsular Asia was little or nothing different from the Lydian Asia; called Lydia, not only by Herodotus and Scylax, but also (if I mistake not) by h L. Cùm appellatio. C. de appellatio nib. Constantius the Emperor himself. To Valens, the elder Theodosius succeeded in the Eastern Empire: who took away i L. Offic. Hellesponts. C. de offic. comi●. sacr● p●trimon. vel potius, proconsulis et legati. the Consular Hellespont from the jurisdiction of the Vicarius of the Asian Diocese, and put it under the command of the Proconsul of Asia. Which state of the then Proconsular or proper Asia that Greek Geographer might seem to have respected; who beginneth his enumeration of the XLVIII. Provinces of the continent of Asia, with Pontus and Bythinia. Asia properly so called. Great Phrygia. Lycia and Caria. Galatia, &c. as we have it presented unto us by that most curious searcher of all such kind of rarities, k Salmas. Plinian. exercitat. in Solin. pag. 803. Claudius Salmasius. Wherein it is observable, that Hellespont, Aeolis, Jonia and Lydia are included in, as well as the greater Phrygia and Caria are excluded from the Asia then properly so called. Whence that new addition of Hellespont being put aside; the remain will prove to be the same with that which a little before was styled by Eunapius, the Asia now properly so called. In the days of Arcadius (the son and successor of the foresaid Theodosius) this addition of Hellespont to the jurisdiction, was much abated by the detraction of the main inland part of Lydia from the body of the Proconsular Asia. Which is the cause why l Pallad. in vitâ Chrysostomi: & ex eo Georgius Al●xandrinus, tomo 8. edít. Savilian oper. Ch●ysost. pag. 202. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Palladius, speaking of the Asian Synod of seventy Bishops held by Chrysostom in the CCCCII. year of our Lord, doth separate the Bishops of Lydia from the Bishops of Asia. for as for the subscriptions of the first council of Nice, both those which are found in some Latin books, and those Greek ones that have been lately published m In Commentario Jo. Seldeni ad Eu●ychu Origin●s ubi rectissin è monuir, Subscriptiones has Graecas recentiores multò esse commatis quàm Co●stantini temporae admittunt. (pag. 128.) out of Sambucus his copy: they being quite dissonant the one from the other, and having in both of them diverse manifest tokens of forgery and corruption, do deserve here no regard at all. Yet in this distraction of Lydia from the Proconsular Asia, it appeareth as well by n Hie●oclis No●itia Oriental▪ Imperiis in Append. G●og●aph sacr. pag. 27. the civil and o Photius, de ordine Metropolita●. ibid. pag. 43. et in tomo. 1. juris Graeco Romani, pag. 90. ecclesiastical lists of the Provinces of the Eastern empire, recorded by the Grecians, as by the p Subscript. Concil. Chalced, Act. 6. Concil. Constantinop. VI. Act. 18. &c. subscriptions of the council of Chalcedon and other of the Eastern Synods; that the Southern part of Lydia, lying betwixt the rivers of Maeander and Cayster, which we noted to have been attributed by Ptolemy unto Caria (and wherein were the cities of Priene, Magnesia, Trallis and Nysa) was still reserved unto Asia: together with all that lay upon the sea-coast from Ephesus upward, not only unto Pitane and the mouth of Caicus (which we showed to have been a parcel of the Lydian Asia) but also unto Assos and the promontory of Lectum; which was possessed first by the Mysians, then by the Lydians, and lastly by the Aeolians. for that this also, at least wise from Antandrus downward, was sometimes accounted as an appendent unto Lydia, may be gathered, partly from the words of g {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} S●ylax in Per●plo. Scylax Caryandensis (though here corrupted) partly from the testimony of Xenophon; who telleth us that he and his company, r {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. X●noph. de exped. Cyri, lib. 7. departing from Antandrus, passed by the sea side of Lydia, unto the plain of Thebes, and through it unto Adramyttium. compared with Strabo, relating to the same purpose, that the former s Strabo, lib. 13. pag. 586. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Id. ibid. pag. 613. inhabitants of the plain of Thebes were the Lydians, then called Meones: and that in his time the name of the Lydian gates was still preserved in Adramyttium, as a memorial of the building of that city by the Lydians. Although yet, by the authority of Galen and Eunapius, we begin our Lydian Asia from the river Caïcus and Pergamus: those other places of Atarna, Thebes, Adramyttium and Antandrus, being by u Herodo●. lib. 7. de Xerxi● exercitu. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Simplic. in Aristot. Phys●c. lib. 5. Herodotus also referred to Mysia, and not to Lydia. To conclude therefore the various alterations of the limits of the Proconsular Asia: as we have referred Ptolemy's Asia properly so called to the Proconsular Asia, as it was ordered by Augustus; and Eunapius his Asia now properly so called, to that which was by Constantine; and the nameless Geographers proper Asia, to that which was by the elder Theodosius: by the like reason also, what Simplicius writeth in the days of Justinian touching his Asia now so called, and simeon Metaphrastes long after him (though concerning elder times, wherein these provinces stood in a far different posture from that which he presenteth unto us) y {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Metaphrast. in acts Aberc●●, Octob. 22. of the confluence of the inhabitants of Asia unto Abercius; we may well suppose to have relation unto this last settlement, which was made in the days of Arcadius and the younger Theodosius. CHAP. IV. Of the Asian Diocese, and the Metropolitan cities thereof; with the civil and ecclesiastical government settled therein. A Diocese, in the language of the times whereof we speak, was a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Balsamon, in Concil. Chalcedon. can. 9 a circuit comprehending within it many provinces: and the Asian Diocese in that sense, sometimes taken more strictly, as it was distinguished from the Proconsular Asia and the provinces subject to the jurisdiction of the Proconsul thereof; and sometimes more largely, as containing those Proconsular provinces also under it. The former acception hath place in that Constitution of Theodosius the elder, whe●e b Cod. Theodos. lib. 16. tit. 1. de fide Cathol l. 3. Nec non etiam in Asià Proconsula●s atque Asianâ diocesi, Amphilochio &c. Ita enim ex MS. Malmesburiensi (quem mihi communicavit V. C. (Jo Seldenus) locus resti●uendus est. the Proconsular Asia and the Asian Diocese are both nominated together: and generally where ever the office of the Vicarius or c Imp. Const●ntin. ad Tertullianum P. V. Comitem dioeceseos Asianae. Ibid. lib. 2. tit. 26. finium regundor. l. 1. Impp. Arcad. et Honorius A A. Nebridio Comit● Asia. Cod. Justinian. lib. 11. In quib. caus. colon●. censiti. l. 2. Comes (for these two titles are used d Imp. Constantinu● ad Tiberianum Vica●ium Hispaniarum. in l. Si à sponso. C de donationib. ant nupt. et ad Tiberianum Comitem Hispaniarum. in l. Cùm servum. C de serv. fugitiv. to signify the same dignity) of Asia or the Asian Diocese (or e Vicarius Asiana regionis. Julian. Epitome. Novel. 8. sive Constitut. 15. §. 56▪ (●dit. Lugdun. an. 1567.) quam idem ibid. paulo pòst Asianam dioecesim appellat. Simili●er & in Constitut. 24. §. 98. Asianam regionem vocat; quae in Authentic. C●llat. 4. tit. 2. (de appellationib. §. Similique modo) nomine Asiana diocoeseos designatur. Region, as Julianus Antecessor rendereth it) is made mention of. The latter, when the Asian is rehearsed joinctly with other Dioceses of the Eastern Empire: as in L. Si quis post hanc. C. Ut nemo ad suum patrocin. and L. Provinciae Thraciar· C. de militari veste. According to which acception, whole f {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Theodore●. histor.. Ecclesi●stic. lib. 5. cap. 28. Asia, as Theodoret calleth it, in the days of the younger Theodosius did consist of eleven Provinces. g Subdisp●sitione vt●● Spectabilis P●oconsulit ●sia, Provincia infra scripta: Asia, Insula, H●llespontus. Notitia Provinciar. & dignitat. utriusque Impetu. three whereof appertained to the disposition of the Proconsul of Asia: the proper Proconsular which he governed by himself, the Consular Hellespont, and that of the Rhodes, and the other scattered Islands called Cyclades; which were first h Sub Vespasiano principe Insularum provine a facta est. Sext. R●fus, in Breviario. made a Province, and placed under a i L. jamdudum. C. ubi ●ausa. precedent, by the Emperor Vespasian k Sub despositione viri Spectabili● V●●arit Dioeceseos Asiana, Provincia inf●ascr●pta. Pamphyli●, etc Notit. Provinciar· eight were under the Vicarius or Lieutenant of Asia: Lydia, Caria, Phrygia Pacatiana and Phrygia Salutaris, with those four other which were superadded to that proper Asia of the ancient Romans, whereof we made mention in the beginning out of Strabo and Cicero; namely Pamphylia, Lycia, Lycaonia and Pisidia. This distribution is to be seen in the Latin list of the Provinces and Dignities of both the Empires; called by l Alciat: Pa●erg. lib. 5 c. 13. Alciat the Breviary of Theodosius the younger. m {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Jo. Malel. Ant●ochen. Chronic. M.S. lib, 14. by whom Lycia was divided from Lycaonia and made a Province by itself; Myra being appointed the Metropolis and place of the residence of the precedent thereof: as Johannes Malela setteth down in his Chronicle. Which report of his if we admit for authentic; we must withal say, that Theodoret, in the place even now alleged, had relation to the state of his own time, when speaking of the care which Chrysostom had of Asia, he saith that it was governed by eleven precedents. joining the three Provinces which were under the Proconsul of Asia, with the other eight that were under the Vicarius of the Asian diocese; which otherwise, if Lycia and Lycaonia had been conjoined, would have been but seven Provinces. Indeed, n Asianae X. Pamphylia, Hellespontus, Lydia, &c. Notit, utriusque Imperii. in the general enumeration of the Provinces of the Eastern Empire, which we meet withal toward the beginning of the foresaid Theodosian Breviary, there are but ten Provinces numbered of the whole Asian diocese: the first and principal of them all, to wit Asia itself, by some error (wherewith o Onuphr. Commentar. Reipub. Ro●ā. lib. 3. pag. 424. Onuphrius also and p Cont. 〈◊〉. in Justinian. Novel. 8. cap. 2. Contius was misledd) being omitted. Which was nothing amended by Isidorus Mercator, but increased rather; when he reckoneth up q In Asia XII, prima ipsa Asia. Vid. Salmasii Eucharistic. de Eccles. suburbicar.. pag. 347. twelve Provinces in this Asia: the first and chief whereof he maketh to be Asia itself; r Asiae Provincia XII. Asia ipsa, in qua est Ilium, id est, Troia, Lydia, Galatia, Ly●ia, Caria. hellespontu●. &c. Provinciar. Romanar. libel. ab Ant. Sconhovio & Andr. Schotto edit. ex Isidori Collect. Epistolar. Decretal, MS. in which (saith he) is Ilium, or Troy; the second Lydia, the third Galatia. Whereas Ilium was situated not in this, but in the province of Hellespont: and Galatia appertained to the Pontican, and not to the Asian Diocese. Whence, by the way, we may correct an error that hath crept into the Greek edition of the subscriptions of the 6. Action of the council of Chalcedon: wherein, though Theosebius Bishop of Ilium had put to his name, yet Stephen the Metropolitan of the Ephesians, among those absent Bishops that were under his jurisdiction, doth nominate Rufinus Bishop, not Timi (as the Latin books have it) but Ilii. s Guid. Pancirol. Commentar. in Noti●, O●ient, Imper▪ cap. 210. Some do think, that the Emperor Justinian did take away Hellespont from the government of the Proconsul of Asia, and joined it with Pontus Polemoniacus. But that error arose from the old Latin translation of the XXth. Novel of Justinian; t Au●hentic. Collat. 3. tit. 7. de administra. offic. in sacr. appellat●on. Hellespontus being therein put for Helenopontus, in the Pontican diocese: as appeareth not only by the Greek text and u Julian. Constit. 25.§, 102. Julian's Latin Epitome thereof, but also by the Latin itself (acknowledging afterwards, that this mutation was made in Galatia and the Pontican, not the Asian diocese) and by the XXVIIIth. novel most evidently. Though sure it is, that x Justinian. Novel. 8. cap. 2. Nov. 20, c●p. 6. Nov. 24. cap. 5. & Nov. 27. init. he took from the lieutenant or Vicarius the government of the Asian diocese, and confined him within the limits of Phrygia Pacatiana, whereof he constituted him Count or Comes. By that which in the second chapter hath been delivered, it appeareth, that under the first Emperors there were many metropolitical cities within one Province; and some chosen out of them wherein Courts of justice were erected, unto which the next adjoining circuits might upon all occasions have recourse. Whereupon those contentions afterwards did arise betwixt the cities of the Proconsular Asia, touching each one's dignity and precedency: for the composing whereof Aristides made that Oration of concord unto them, which is still extant. Wherein yet the common desire of all the Asians accorded in this; y Impe●ator noster Antoni●u● Augustus ad desideria Asianorum resc●i●sit; Proconsuli ●ecessitatem impositam, per mare Asiam appli●a●e {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. primam attingere Ulpian in that the Proconsul, at his first coming into the province, should pass into Asia by sea, and among the other Metropoles first arrive at Ephesus: as by the Rescript of the Emperor Antoninus (vouched by Ulpian, in his first book of the proconsul's office) most manifestly appeareth. But in the disposition of the Empire made by Constantine it was ordered, that in every Province there should be but one chief city held for the Metropolis: and that unto it, l Observa●e. D. de offic. Procons. all the Provincials should resort for the administration of public justice. Whereupon Ephesus, being by the former imperial Constitution, grounded upon the joincte consent of the Asians themselves, z {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Eus●b. lib. 4 hist. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. preferred before all the rest (as being the ordinary place of the convention of the Common council, and itself held to be a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Aristid. or●t de concord●â, ●d civitat●● Asi●t●c●s. the common treasury of Asia) was appointed to be the sole Metropolis of this new Proconsular Asia; and withal retained the preeminence which formerly it had above all the cities of the old. Whereof, we may see the testimonies, as well of b {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Ch●ysost. in argument. epist. ad Eph●s. Chrysostom and others of the ancient who wrote upon the Epistle of S Paul to the Ephesians; as of the Emperor c {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Th●odos. ●un. epist. a● Dioscor. in●er Acta Co●cil. E●h●sin. 〈◊〉. (inser●a Actioni 1. Concil. Chalcedon.) Theodosius, in the letters whereby he summoneth Dioscorus and other Bishops to appear at the second council at Ephesus, assembled by him in the year of our Lord CCCCXLIX. Whence he that wrote the book of the places mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (Falsely fathered upon S. Hierom) saying that d ●p●cialiter ubi E●hesu● civitas est, Asia vocatur. Lib. de locis Act. Apostol. inter H●eronymi & Bedae o●era. where the city of Ephesus is, there is the Asia specially so called; may seem to have meant no other thing thereby, but that the province which had Ephesus for its Metropolis, was that which had the name of Asia in a singular manner appropriated unto it. if therein he looked any further than to the ba●e words of the text; wherein it is said, that Paul e Act. 19.10. continuing at Ephesus by the space of two years, all they which dwelled in Asia heard the word of the Lord. and that afterward f Act. 20 16, 18. he determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: and thereupon sending for the Elde●s of the Church of Ephesus, he said unto them; Ye know from the fi●st day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons. Out of all which it was no hard matter for him to gather at large, as g Erasm A●no●. in A●t. 16. & Rom. 16▪ Erasmus did after him; that Asia in the new Testament denoteth that part of Asia minor, in which Ephesus standeth. It is here also further to be noted, that as in the state of the civil government, the jurisdiction of the annual precedents (by Aristides styled h {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Arist●d. in orat. citat. x anteà dixister. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. qu●●st ille sortitus annus; de quo St●ti●●, suprà p●g. 13. Bishops) was extended unto all the cities that were contained within the limits of their several provinces; and when but one Metropolis was appointed unto every province, wherein the governor was to keep his ordinary residence, the provincial precedents had from thence the appellation of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} (or M●tropolitan Judges, as, at the end of the first novel of Justinian, the * {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, are with him Iudices p●ovinciarum, in N●vell 69. old Latin Interpreter rendreth it:) so, in the Eastern empire especially, the ecclesiastical r●giment was herein conformed unto the civil; there being but one Metropolitan Bishop settled in every Province, unto whom the Bishops of all the rest of the cities were subordinated. By which means it came to pass. that of the seven Churches in Asia, spoken of in the book of the Revelation, Ephesus alone in the days of Constantine had the metropolitical dignity left unto it. Then after the days of Valens the Emperor, the inland Lydia being separated from Asia, the Bishop of Sardis (which had been the i {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. S●rabo, lib. 13. pag. 625. ancient seat of the Lydian Kings) became the Metropolitan of that province: the sees of Philadelphia and * In the Latin edition of the subscriptio●s adjoined unto the 9 Action of the council of Chalcedon, Thyatira is made subj●ct to Synnada. but the Greek readeth the●e, not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} rather; a se● well known to be suffragan to Synnada, the Metropolis of Phrygia Salutatis. Thyatira being made subject to him; as Smyrna and Pergamus were to the Bishop of Ephesus. There remained then of the seven, only Laodicea: which got the honour of being the Metropolis of Phrygia Pacatiana; as we read in the Greek subscription of the first epistle unto Timothy: the §. although it be elde● then those middle times, wherein Phrygia Pacatiana, by a meta●hesis of the first syllabl●s, was called Capatiana: as may be seen in Hie●ocles his Civilla à 〈◊〉 his Ecclesiastica●l list of the provinces. in Appendic. Geographiae sacrae. p●g. 27.39, 41.49.53. lateness whereof is thence rightly collected by the learned k unde satis liquere potest, de sub●criptione primae epistolae ad Timotheum, recentio●em eam esse. Cujac. in exposit. Nove●l 145. Cujaicus. For as the distinction of Ph●ygia Pacatiana and Salutaris is nowhere to be found before the distribution of the provinces made by Constantine: so at that time also, when but one Metropolis was allotted unto every Province, it is a question, whether of those two * Lao●icea and Hierapolisa● they w●re near one onether (and so conjoined by the Apostle, in Coloss 413.) so have th●y the first place also assigned unto them among the cities of Ph●ygia Pacatiana, by Hie●ocles in the civil list of the Provinces: Append. Geogr. sacr. pag. 21. prime cities that were so nea●e together, Hierapolis, which without all controversy was acknowledged to belong unto Phrygia, was not rather chosen to be the mother city therein, than Laodicea, which by reason of the doubtful situation thereof (as we have heard) was indifferently challenged to appertain unto Phrygia, Caria and Lydia. In the days of the succeeding Emperors indeed, l {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Concil. Chalcedon. Can. 12. who yielded so far to the ambition of some Bishops, that they were content there should be two Metropolitans in one Province, both these cities were accounted for the Metropoles of Phrygia Pacatiana which is the cause, why in the fourth general council, assembled at Chalcedon, as well m Subscript. Concil. Ch●lced. Act. 6. & 16. Nunechius Bishop of the Metropolis of Laodicea, as Stephen Bishop of the Metropolis of Hierapolis, do subscribe for themselves and the absent Bishops which were under them. as also in the fifth general council held at Constantinople, there is mention made at the same time of n Concil. V. Collat. 8. John Bishop of the Metropolis of the Laodiceans, and Auxanon Bishop of the Metropolis of the Hierapolitans: & in the sixth, of Tiberius Bishop of the Laodiceans and Sisinnius of the Hierapolitans, either of them giving unto his seat the title o {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Concil. VI. Constantinop. Act, 18. of the Metropolis of the Pacatian Phrygians. And although by a Canon of the said council of Chalcedon it was provided, that any Bishop which afterward p {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. ●oncil. Chalced. c●n. 12. would attempt to make such divisions to the derogation of the rights of his own Metropolitan, should be deprived of his dignity; and that q {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} &c. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Ibid. the new Metropoles formerly constituted by the imperial Charters should so content themselves with this honour, that the proper rights should still be preserved unto that which was the Metropolis indeed: yet we see for all this, that r Notit. Graec. in appendic. Geograph. s●cr. pag. 16. & 18. it●m 48. & 52. Jur. Graeco. Roman. tom. 1. pag. 94. & 98. in the lists of the bishoprics of the East made in the succeeding times, there are still distinct suffragans reckoned under these two Metropolitans of Laodicea and Hierapolis; and that diverse other private Bishops were not hereby restrained from aspiring unto a metropolitical dignity. among whom (to speak only of those who were within the compass of the Lydian Asia) was the Bishop of Smyrna; who found the means to be made first {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or independent, and then t Jur. G●aeco· Roman. tom. 1. pag. 88 & 245. a Metropolitan with u Ibid· pag. 100 seven suffragans depending upon him. x Georg. Co. din. Curep●lat. de Offic. Constantinop. pag. 221, &. 237. edit. Fr. Junii. the Bishop of Pergamus; who was exempted likewise from his subordination to Ephesus, and made a Metropolitan by himself. and the Bishop of Philadelphia: s Notit. Graec. in Append. Geograph. sacr. p●g. 8. & 40 y Ibid. pag. 219. & 231. Vid. S●lmas●i Eucharistic. de Eccles. suburbicar.. pag. 383. who by Andronicus Palaeologus the elder was substituted into the place of the Bishop of Sardis, and made Metropolitan of all Lydia. So as of the Bishops of the seven Churches mentioned in the book of the revelation, he of Thyatira only excepted, all at the last became Metropolitans, as they were at the first. But among all these, the See of Ephesus had evermore the preeminence. And as it was the mother city of the Proconsular Asia: so was that Asia likewise the prime Province of all the Asian Diocese; and had in such esteem, that the Proconsul thereof was exempted from the jurisdiction of the Praefectus Praetorio Orientis, (as before we have heard out of Eunapius) unto which the Vicarius or Lieutenant of the Asian Diocese was subject. Conformably whereunto in the ecclesiastical government, the Bishop of Ephesus was not only held to be the Metropolitan of the Proconsular Asia, but also the Primate of all the provinces that were contained within the compass of the whole Asian Diocese. upon which ground it was, that among those Bishops which Palladius (in the life of Chrysostom) mentioneth to have been ordained by Antoninus Bishop of Ephesus; z {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Sozomen. hist. lib. 8. cap. 6. some were of Lycia and Phrygia, as well as others of Asia: the ordination of these latter being challenged by virtue of his metropolitical, of the others by his patriarchical jurisdiction. In the Arabic Acts of the council of Nice (which that worthy Knight Sr. Thomas Roe, among other rare monuments, brought with him from the East and bestowed upon the famous library of the University of Oxford) it is affirmed that a Ca. 35. &. 32. quorum indicium debeo D. Edovardo Pocolcio linguae Arabicae in Academiâ Oxoniensi professori doctissimo. the Patriarchship of Ephesus was translated unto the Bishop of Constantinople, and that he was then made the second in order, and the Patriarch of Alexandria the third. and a Constitution is therein recited, that the patriarchal see should be translated from Ephesus to the imperial city; that so honour might be done both to the Empire and Priesthood together: and, to the end the other Bishop might be honoured (and not lightly set by, because of the transferring of the patriarchal chair from him) that he should enjoy the eminent title of Catholicus. for proof whereof, the testimony of one Dionysius is there alleged. But neither the authority of this obscure Dionysius, nor of the latter Arabians following him, is of sufficient weight to gain credit to this relation: especially seeing it is well known, that the title of Catholicus, taken in this sense, b Cathol●ci nomen infirmâ imperti atate natum. Salmas. Eucharistic. de Eccles. suburbicar: cap. 3. pag. 511. is of a very late original, and (for aught we can find) at no time attributed unto the Bishop of Ephesus; and that the Bishop of Constantinople had the second place among the Patriarchs first assigned unto him, not in the council of Nice, but c council▪ Constantinopol. I. ●a●. 3. in the second general council held at Constantinople in the year CCCLXXXI. After which advancement, the first Bishop of that see we read of, that extended his jurisdiction beyond the sea unto d Theodoret. lib. 5. histor.. cap. 28. the Pontican and Asian dioceses, was John Chrysostom, e Pallad. & Georg. Alexandrin. in Vità Chrysostomi. Sozomen. lib. 8. histor.. cap. 6. who passing over unto Ephesus, and holding there the foresaid Synod of the LXX. Asian Bishops, placed Heraclides in the bishopric of Ephesus, then vacant by the death of Antoninus; and deposing XIII. Bishops, who were charged to have been simoniacally ordained by him, placed others in their room. And, although within four years after, as well Heraclides as the other thirteen Bishops of Chrysostom's ordination were removed again, and the former Bishops restored to their places: yet it appeareth by the acknowledgement of the Pontican and Asian Bishops in the XVIth. Action of the council of Chalcedon, that his successors continued their claim, and challenged still a right at leastwise in the ordination of the Metropolitans of both those Dioceses. Which power of ordaining Metropolitans, not only in the Thracian but also in the Pontican and Asian diocese, being thereupon confirmed unto the Bishops of Constantinople by a f Concil. Chalcedon. Act. 16. & Canon. 28. special act of that council (beside g Ibid. Can 9 & 17. a liberty given to all clerks that had any suit with their Metropolitan, to prosecute the same either before the Primate of the Diocese or the Patriarch of Constantinople, at their own election) gave occasion unto Euagrius to write, that h {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Euagr. histor.. lib, 3. cap. 6. the council of Chalcedon took away the patriarchical right from the Church of the Ephesians; and that by Timothy of Alexandria (the deadly enemy of that council) it was restored thereunto again. After which time we see, that the Bishop of Ephesus, as Metropolitan of the Asian province, subscribeth thus unto the Constantinopolitan Synod held under Menas. i {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Concil. CP. sub Menâ; Act. 5. I Hypatius, by the mercy of God Bishop of the Metropolis of the Ephesians of the Asian province, have defined and subscribed. and as Patriarch of the Asian diocese, to the letters sent by the sixth council of Constantinople, unto Pope Agatho, thus. k {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Synod. VI. Constantinop. Act. 18. I Theodorus by the mercy of God Bishop of the Metropolis of the Ephesians, and Primate of the Asian Diocese, both for myself, and the Synod that is under me, have subscribed. For although in the times of the latter Emperors also, he still retained the title of Primate or l {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. In ordine thronor. Metropolitan. ad calcem Codini. de officiis Constantinopol, Vid. Salmasii Eucharistic, de Eccles. Suburbicar. cap. 2. pag. 385, 408, 409. Exarch of all Asia; yet all Asia did not import therein the whole Asian Diocese, but the Asian Province only: the exarchate of the Diocese, having been wholly engrossed into the hands of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Which is the cause, why Balsamon noteth, that m {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Theod. Balsam. in Concil. Chalcedon. can. 9 the privilege heretofore granted unto exarchs by the council of Chalcedon, was in his days of no force at all. For although some of the Metropolitans (saith he) are named exarchs; yet have they none of the other Metropolitans within the Dioceses any ways subject unto them. and n {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Subscript. Concil. Constantinopol. sub. Gregorio Patriarchâ habit. Vide Sirmondi Propemptic. lib. 2. cap. 5. pag. 214. & 218. John, in a late Synod held after the time of the council of Florence, subscribeth himself Bishop of the Metropolis of the Ephesians, and Exarch (or Primate, not of the Diocese, but) of the Province of the Asians. And of the Asian Diocese, with the civil and ecclesiastical government thereof, thus much in brief may suffice. FINIS. TO The Right Honourable, the House of peers, now assembled in PARLIAMENT. The Humble Petition of JAMES Archbishop of ARMAGH. Humbly showeth, THat whereas your Lordships were pleased to employ your Petitioner in preaching before you on the fastday, the 22. of December last: (which service, according to his mean ability, he was careful to perform:) so it is, that one John Nicholson, having got into his hands a collection of some rude and incoherent Notes of that Sermon, took the boldness to publish the same (under the Title of Vox Hiberniae) as a true Relation of that which was uttered before your Lordships that day. Which being in many places void of common sense, & in the whole every way unanswerable unto what was fit to have been delivered before so Honourable and judicious an Audience, His humble request is, That your Lordships would be pleased, to call in that suppositions Pamphlet, &c. Die Veneris, 11. Februarii, 1641. Ordered by the Lords in Parliament, That a Book concerning the L. Archbishop of Armagh, being published and printed by John Nicholson, shall be called in and suppressed. JO. BROWNE. Cleric. Parliam. To the Wardens and Company of the Stationers of London. AN Order of the Commons House of Parliament, FOR The suppressing of an other Pamphlet, falsely fathered upon the said Archbishop of Armagh. Die Martis, 9 Febr. 1640. WHereas complaint hath been made unto us by James Lord Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, that a certain Pamphlet hath been lately most injuriously fathered upon him, and spread abroad under the false title of The Bishop of Armagh's direction to the house of Parliament, concerning the liturgy and episcopal Government: It is this day ordered in the Commons House of Parliament, that the Master and company of Stationers, and all others whom it may concern, shall take such course for the suppressing of the said Book, that they shall not suffer it to be put in print, or if it be already printed, not permit the same to be divulged. And if any man shall presume to print or publish the Book abovementioned; That he, or they, shall be then liable to the Censure of the said House. H. Elsing Cler. Domûs Comm.